"What is Joik, as heard in Spirit In The Sky? Buljo’s mid-song chant (fast-forward to 2:02 to hear it) is a traditional type of song performed by the Sami people – otherwise known as Lapps or Laplanders – who inhabit the Sapmi region, encompassing large parts of Norway and Sweden as well as northern Finland and Murmansk Oblast in north-west Russia. The sound, which has been compared to the chanting of some Native American cultures, is often deeply personal in nature, with each joik meant to reflect or evoke a person, animal or place. Eurovision aside, it’s found its place in popular culture, serving as inspiration for the likes of Disney’s Frozen – with the opening song, Vuelie, heavily influenced by Sami culture."

"No other country’s entry at the huge if hotly debated Eurovision
Song Contest won as many votes from the public as Norway’s trio known
as KEiiNO late Saturday night. Two of KEiiNO’s members are
crediting their Sami colleague Fred Buljo for catapulting them from
15th- to 5th place in the finals....

KEiiNO singers Tom Hugo and Alexandra Rotan said on Sunday that they
were “dedicating” what’s considered a respectable result at Eurovision
to their fellow singer Fred Buljo, whose Sami heritage and Sami joik set
them apart from all the other entries that often featured wailing
vocalists and lots of pyrotechnics."

"“I’m very proud of my Sami background and culture,” said Buljo, who
hails from Kautokeino in Norway’s northernmost county of Finnmark. “This
shows that the joik, which is Europe’s oldest song tradition, touches people’s souls.” [emphasis added]The United Nations is also honouring traditional languages of indigenous peoples this year, with Norway’s Sami Parliament (Sametinget)
receiving NOK 1.1 million to boost exposure of the Sami language. “Now
we can continue the work to strengthen languages under threat,” Buljo
said, adding that he’s involved in production of a “concept album”
featuring indigenous languages from around the world."

Norway had in fact already handily won the public vote in the 2nd semifinal sing-off prior to the grand final and could be viewed as the song which reflects the era of our life and times in our climate-change discussion age - an era of Northern Lights (Aurora Borealis) caused by an active sun.

However, Spirit in the Sky was not greatly favored in the so-called jury vote of alleged professional "experts", whose vote in each country was counted as 50% of the "total vote", with the other 50% being comprised by the public vote.

Moreover, the foundation of the jury vote was not based on viewing the actual Grand Final performances of the 26 music participants, but rather on seeing the non-publicly available 2nd general viz. dress rehearsal prior to the Grand Final, which is not identical to the Grand Final, as changes are made. You can't make this kind of thing up. Basing 50% of the result of a finals race on a non-public evaluation of a preliminary heat? Not a good standard of judgment in our estimation. A final is always different than the prelims.

This strange system leads in each country to an extremely small not necessarily qualified group of people in a so-called "jury" picking their personal song favorites and, as in 2019, taking the win away from the most popular song in favor of some other song "technically" preferred as an individual matter of taste. Really, we could care less about a jury for music. The public buys music and listens to it. That should be the standard. The public vote, not a jury vote. Polls don't win elections, the actual VOTE OF THE PUBLIC does.

NOTE:The German publicin their Grand Final televotepicked Norway as the winner.

HOWEVER:The German jury of five viewing the Dress Rehearsalvoted for Italy as the winner.

If the two are added, Italy then "won" the German vote, 18-17, as the jury did not vote well for Norway. Spirit in the Sky was a song that did not necessarily relate to the musical experiences of the German jury.

We try to read all relevant news, left, center and right, and ran across this interesting historical item today at RT.com, highlighting a remarkable augmented reality photo album of the Romanovs, the last family to occupy the throne of the former Russian monarchy.

"#Romanovs100 AR [Augmented Reality] Family Photo Album has been shortlisted for one of the world’s most prestigious design awards – D&AD 2019. The book was published following RT’s history project dedicated to Russia’s last reigning royal family.

To celebrate the achievement, the book is now available for free download HERE. Unlock the album’s full potential by downloading a free iOS app that not only goes with the print edition, but also works with the digital version. Download the app HERE.

#Romanovs100 reviewed the last decades of the Russian Empire as seen through the lenses of the Romanov family’s cameras using accounts on four social networks. Each platform showcased its own narrative, format and content. With the album, #Romanovs100 combines the visual language of photography with AR tech to create an interactive history book featuring the humane story and unique photographic legacy of Russia’s last tsar, Nicholas II. This extended reality breaks the ‘fourth wall’ of storytelling providing for side-narratives, archive video, 3D visualisations and more."

Cowen states that he is "rooting for a resurgence of centrist cosmopolitanism"but admits that he has to "try
to be honest about how my ideas are doing in the world. And in the last
few weeks, I've seen a lot of evidence that a new political era truly
is upon us." [link added by LawPundit]

We might add that Cowen in the linked article could serve as a journalistic role model for mainstream journalism and for politicians and voters everywhere, in looking to the EVIDENCE of what is happening, rather than to what people want to happen based on their own circumscribed views or fixed political preferences.

When the political pendulum swings, it is often an unstoppable force.
Calling this development "populism" merely clouds the real issues.

Rather, one must look to the causes of the political swing to the right in attendant political, social, legal and economic developments.

LawPundit Hits

Translate LawPundit

Search LawPundit

LawPundit Email Follow

Subscribe To LawPundit

LawPundit Impressum

Responsible for Blog Content: Verantwortlich für den Inhalt:(required by German Law):Andis KaulinsGartenstrasse 1056841 Traben-TrarbachGermanyContact: first and last name dot-separated at gmail dot com

Both volumes have the same cover except for the labels "Volume 1" viz. "Volume 2".The image on the cover was created using public domain space photos of Earth from NASA.

-----

Both book volumes contain the following basic book description:"Alice Cunningham Fletcher observed in her 1902 publication in the American Anthropologistthat there is ample evidence that some ancient cultures in Native America,e.g. the Pawnee in Nebraska, geographically located their villages according to patterns seen in stars of the heavens.See Alice C. Fletcher, Star Cult Among the Pawnee--A Preliminary Report,American Anthropologist, 4, 730-736, 1902.Ralph N. Buckstaff wrote:"These Indians recognized the constellations as we do, also the important stars,drawing them according to their magnitude.The groups were placed with a great deal of thought and care and show long study. ... They were keen observers....The Pawnee Indians must have had a knowledge of astronomycomparable to that of the early white men."See Ralph N. Buckstaff, Stars and Constellations of a Pawnee Sky Map,American Anthropologist, Vol. 29, Nr. 2, April-June 1927, pp. 279-285, 1927.In our book, we take these observations one level furtherand show that megalithic sites and petroglyphic rock carvingand pictographic rock art in Native America,together with mounds and earthworks, were made to represent territorial geographic landmarksplaced according to the stars of the sky using the ready map of the starry skyin the hermetic tradition, "as above, so below".That mirror image of the heavens on terrestrial land is the "Sky Earth" of Native America,whose "rock stars" are the real stars of the heavens,"immortalized" by rock art petroglyphs, pictographs,cave paintings, earthworks and mounds of various kinds (stone, earth, shells) on our Earth.These landmarks were placed systematicallyin North America, Central America (Meso-America) and South Americaand can to a large degree be reconstructed as the Sky Earth of Native America."